WATCH: Spectacular footage of man swimming with sharks off Clare coast

INCREDIBLE underwater footage of a man swimming with sharks has prompted lots of OMG and WOW comments online.

The video, which was uploaded by Tom Gillespie to his Instagram account @tom__gillespie on Saturday morning, has already been viewed over 80,000 times. The footage which Tom took on his GoPro has also been tweeted by his friend Ray O'Foghlu who was with him in the water.

Happy to say this was my morning. Just down the road from the house with two good friends.

The bay was full of sharks. We estimated 20+

Swam with them for two hours. It was completely surreal.

We were mostly stationary and they'd just cruise past, mouths agape. pic.twitter.com/2SNUFRk8uD

— O'Foghlu (@rayofoghlu) May 2, 2020

“Happy to say this was my morning. Just down the road from the house with two good friends.The bay was full of sharks. We estimated 20+,” commented Ray who swam for two hours with the giant fish off the coast of Miltown Malbay in County Clare.

“It was completely surreal. We were mostly stationary and they'd just cruise past, mouths agape,” he went on.

The Limerick Leader reported on Saturday evening how a shark had been making waves off the coast of Kilkee this bank holiday weekend.

Incredible footage is being shared online of the giant fish swimming in the water near the County Clare resort, a popular spot for Limerick folk.

The sea creatures have now been identified as basking sharks, the second-largest living shark, after the whale shark.

"There are loads of basking sharks around. They are feeding between Doonbeg and Kilkee at the minute,” explained local councillor in Kilkee, Cillian Murphy.

“They are something we see every year. They are huge.”

But despite the menacing appearance, it transpires the giant fish is extremely unlikely to attack humans.They do not bite their prey.

“They are filter feeders so they swim with their mouths open. They are absolutely more scared of you than you should be of them,” said Cllr Murphy who used to be a fisherman.

Basking sharks feast mostly on tiny crustaceans called plankton.They are slow-moving, usually swimming at around 2mph, and do not get out of the way of boats as fast as other sharks do.

Unlike fearsome great whites, basking sharks have relatively small hooked teeth around 1/4 inch (6mm) long which are mostly useless. They have enormous mouths more than three feet wide, with jaws that stretch open as they feed in shallow waters close to shore.